


Edge of the Water

by vampiretyong



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Fluff, M/M, Merpeople
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:02:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26313850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampiretyong/pseuds/vampiretyong
Summary: South Kingston was hot, like the surface of the Sun hot, and Taeyong hated it, but one day on a walk he notices a handsomely scaly man swimming in the sea.
Relationships: Lee Taeyong/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Kudos: 27





	Edge of the Water

South Kingston was hot, like the surface of the Sun hot, and Taeyong hated it. The coldest winter day in South Kingston dropped to a freezing 56 degrees. But this was summer, and the temperature was in the 100s.

Taeyong felt like an outcast: he hated the heat, he hated summer. All his friends were ecstatic when the temperature rose, loved feeling the hot Sun beat down on their skin, racing to the beaches to feel the burning sand between their toes. Taeyong, however, preferred to stay inside with multiple fans blowing around his room.

Finding a date was hard for him since he never left his room. It was even harder because every boy in a 50-mile radius only wanted to go to the Summer Festival, and going at night still made him feel like he was being cooked alive. Of course, night surfing and watching the fireworks go off was fun, but damn the heat was just not for him.

Despite that, and despite him being an adult, his parents still forced him to go outside. They reasoned that it was better for his health, or that he could find himself a nice boy to marry, but he knew it was just a ploy to get him out of the house.

He had to admit that South Kingston was very pretty, with the vast beaches and almost-perfect weather. He very much enjoyed going on walks, especially during the cooler months of the year.

Unfortunately, this was not one of those days. It was a sweltering 103 degrees and Taeyong felt like he was in hell. He was only wearing a light grey t-shirt and a pair of tan shorts, but even that felt like too much. It was midday, which made matters even worse. 

He was rambling downtown, across the long boardwalk that stretched for miles and miles in front of the neverending beach. He felt gross, his back was so sweaty that he felt like his shirt was part of him now. His feet hurt from walking and he could feel his soul escaping his body. His brain felt sluggish and he couldn’t quite tell if the scaly man in the ocean was a hallucination or not.

He stumbled off the boardwalk, onto the blistering sand, and down to the water. The closer he got the more detail he could see of the scaly man. His sopping wet hair was flat on his head, probably from being in the water. His skin was tan and unblemished, although there was some odd coloring around his neck, and Taeyong couldn’t see anything below the waist very clearly. He walked closer, although still sluggish, and plopped himself at the water’s edge with a loud thud, catching the attention of the man in the water.

Taeyong laid down in the sand and closed his eyes, trying to catch his breath. He mumbled a string of curse words and tried to ignore the burning sensation in his buns. He stayed like that for a while, the Sun beating down at him. It didn’t occur to him that he was still in public until he heard a voice speaking to him.

“Hey, are you okay?” they asked.

Taeyong cracked his eyes open and sat up, trying to rub the sand out of his hair. “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay, I--” he stopped. There was no one on the beach with him, and there wasn’t anyone on the boardwalk. Who said that? He laid back down in the sand and sighed, the burning sensation coming back to his body. He looked over to the sea and-- oh God. There was a person in the water.

Taeyong screamed and jumped up, stumbling back a few steps before he fell back onto his butt. He looked at the person in horror as he took in their appearance. He was propped up on his elbows and had a concerned look on his face. His brown hair was stuck to his head, his tan skin was unblemished, and his gills-- gills?

The man looked at Taeyong with a puzzled expression. “Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.

“You’re a mermaid,” Taeyong blurted out.

The merman laughed and put his head in his hands to hide his face-- Taeyong noticing that his fingers were webbed. He had patches of white scales around his… gills and down his arms. He uncovered his face and looked up at Taeyong. “Technically I’m a merman, but same thing I guess.”

Taeyong, eyes wide, scooted closer to the merman. “You’re… are you real?” 

He laughed again and nodded. “My name is Johnny! Are you a human?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “I’ve never met a human before… actually I’ve never even been to the surface.”

“I’m Taeyong, are you-- am I hallucinating?” He felt his forehead; he was definitely hot. Maybe he was just overreacting, but it’s not every day someone meets a good-looking merman. Taeyong scooted even closer, close enough to be within an arm’s length, and peered curiously at Johnny. He looked past his head and examined the rest of his body. He had a long white tail that stretched far beyond the waves; Taeyong guessed that he was around 7 feet in length. “Wow, you’re pretty big.”

Johnny, once again, laughed. “You should see my mom, she’s the size of a whale!”

“That’s not very nice,” Taeyong pouted.

“No I mean,” he paused, trying to find the right words. “She’s really big, like as big as a whale. You know what a blue whale is, right?” Taeyong nodded. “She’s that big.”

He nodded along and pretended that he understood anything Johnny was saying. A 60-foot long mermaid? A 60-foot long mer-mom? His head hurt, most likely from his overexertion and heat exposure, but learning on mermaids probably didn’t help either.

“So… you’re a mermaid?”

“I feel like we’ve already been over this,” Johnny giggled. “I have so many questions about life on land! Like what’s a car?”

What's a car? What… is a car? He never expected that he’d have to explain something as simple as a car. “It’s a vehicle, normally with four wheels, that’s powered by an engine and can carry a number of people for miles. We don’t really use them in this part of Kingston.”

Johnny pursed his lips and quietly asked, “What’s an engine?”

“It’s… actually I’m not sure,” he said as he took his phone out, “Google describes it as ‘a machine with moving parts that converts power into motion,’”

“I still have no idea what that means,” he said, his attention quickly moving on to something else. “What’s that in your hand?”

Taeyong looked down at his phone. “It’s a phone; you can use it to talk to people all around the world.”

Johnny perked up at that, “Do you think I could have a phone? Would it work underwater? Would I be able to talk to you underwater while you’re on land?”

“I don’t think it’d work well underwater, sorry,” he answered, chewing on his lower lip. He felt bad that he couldn’t answer all of Johnny’s burning questions, and that he couldn’t give him a phone. He was really starting to warm up to him.

Johnny pouted and leaned forward to look at Taeyong’s screen. “So I can’t have one of these?” Taeyong shook his head and he sighed, putting his chin on his palm. “How old are you? You look pretty young.”

“I’m 19, my birthday’s in a few weeks,” he said, putting his phone back in his pocket. 

“Oh! I’m 22!” Johnny replied enthusiastically. “Guess how old my mom is!”

Taeyong giggled and cocked his head to the side, pretending to think hard. “Hm… is she 53?” he hummed.

“She’s over 300!” he exclaimed, laughing at the obvious shock on his new friend’s face. “She’s not that old! Merpeople can live for a long time!”

Taeyong laughed nervously and looked around, seeing that he was still alone on the beach. He scratched the back of his neck and brought his attention back to the merperson in front of him. The way the Sun hit him made his skin glow, and he looked absolutely stunning. The contrast between his dark hair and his pale scales was so striking that Taeyong couldn’t help but stare. He was handsome, more handsome than anyone he’s ever seen. He wondered what Johnny’s skin felt like, whether it was soft and smooth or hard and rough. What would it feel like if they held hands?

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the feeling of someone pulling the bottom of his shirt up. He looked down to see Johnny’s hand pulling his shirt up and away from his body, leaning down to peer underneath it. He just sat there, awkwardly staring down at him, until he noticed Johnny’s other hand reaching for his shorts. Taeyong caught his wrist and meekly asked, “What are you doing?”

“I’ve never seen a human body before; I wanted to see what you look like,” he answered quietly, backing away from his friend.

Taeyong blushed and laughed lightheartedly. “Maybe later, when we’re not so out in public,” he said, watching the merman perk up in excitement. “You’re really attractive.”

Johnny chortled and reached out to grab his hand-- it was soft and smooth and slimy-- and gazed into Taeyong’s eyes. “You’re really attractive too,” he said, his brown eyes full of glee.

They stared at each other, Johnny’s wet hand in Taeyong’s, a comforting silence falling between them. It felt intimate, just them two in their own little world together, no one around to disturb them. Taeyong could hear his heartbeat in his head, his blush deepening on his face. Johnny’s smile was captivating and he could stare at him forever. Their gazes flickered between each other’s eyes and lips, both of them slowly leaning towards each other. They got closer and closer until they could feel each other’s breaths. They were so close their lips were almost touching, and they almost did when Taeyong’s phone loudly began to ring.

He groaned and fished it out of his pocket, him and Johnny separating themselves. “It’s my mom,” he said as he put his phone to his ear. He watched Taeyong’s disgruntled expression as he talked on the phone, rolling his eyes every so often. The call quickly ended and he sighed, looking back at the curious merman. “My cousins are visiting and she wants me to go help them unpack.”

Johnny pouted and watched as Taeyong stood up and dusted the sand off his butt. “I’ll miss you,” he said, sadness pooling in his stomach.

“I’ll be back,” Taeyong said, looking down at Johnny. “I’m not sure when, but I’ll be back. I’d love to see you again.”

Johnny nodded in agreement and waved at Taeyong as he walked away, yearning quickly settling on his mind. Taeyong turned around and waved back before he was out of sight, the series of events that just happened playing through his head. Johnny hummed to himself and doodled in the sand, a simple J + T in a heart, before shuffling backwards into the sea and swimming away.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading <333
> 
> [twt](https://mobile.twitter.com/vampiretyong) | [cc](https://curiouscat.qa/vampiretyong)


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